Senior Gynecologist Convicted of Sexual Offenses in a Ruling That Could Change Practice in Israel

The Tel Aviv-Yafo District Court on Tuesday convicted Prof. Menachem Alkalai, a gynecologist, of 10 counts of rape by deception involving nine female patients. The women were between 23 and 66 years old at the time. The court said he exploited his professional status to commit sexual acts during examinations and dismissed his claim that the patients did not understand what was being done to them.

Judges Yaron Levi, Ilan Tzur and Tamar Sanunit-Forer wrote that Alkalai used the appearance of a medical exam as cover, describing “a bleak picture of women who came for treatment and left harmed.” They found that he rubbed the clitoris of the complainants while his fingers were inside their vaginas, presenting the contact as part of a legitimate gynecological procedure. Some patients said he told them he would touch their genitals to check vaginal contraction or to calm them.

Alkalai denied intentionally touching the clitoris, arguing that any contact was an unavoidable anatomical consequence of the way the exam was performed. He also claimed the complaints were a retrospective criminal interpretation of a painful but medical procedure. The judges rejected that defense, calling his claim that women could not describe where he touched them “paternalistic, condescending, outrageous and insulting.” They accepted the detailed testimony of all nine complainants and found it consistent across different clinics and years.

The court said the acts were proven beyond a reasonable doubt and were not medically justified, but a cynical and blatant abuse of the trust placed in him as a doctor. It also noted that the trauma caused some of the women to avoid gynecological exams for years, leading in some cases to medical harm requiring surgery, including ovarian removal. In a broader recommendation, the court urged the Health Ministry to consider a policy requiring a third-party companion during gynecological exams to create a safer, more respectful setting, reduce fear, and also protect doctors from false accusations. The women’s lawyers said they now await sentencing and want the punishment to reflect the severity of the harm.